Category Archives: Life Purpose

Each New Year, I don’t create resolutions. I select a New Year’s theme. I normally select a New Year’s theme based on an idea that strikes me… generally something to support my goals. But this year, nothing was coming, so I decided to approach my theme selection from a different angle.

Back in 2012, a good friend taught me about the 9 year cycles we go through in our lives. Each year has a specific purpose in our development, and we cycle through these 9 years from a fresh start in a year 1 to a point of completion in a 9 year.

I’m heading into a 7 personal year which is all about planning, self-discovery, and diving deeper within. Generally, it’s not a year of making great strides in the physical world, but more exploring the depths of your inner world. It’s preparation for the 8 year which is about abundance, magnification and going big. If I do my inner work of the 7 year right, I should be ready to roll with big things in 2018.

This fits with how I’ve been feeling … that there is a “big idea” out there for me but not yet. There is preparation to do … something to learn and or be clarified first.

As far as goals go…

I’m currently writing my Restoring Liberty book and hope to release it this year. That’s not necessarily any “big thing” for me. I’ve written over 25 books. Writing a book is my norm. The only thing big about it is that it aligns with my mission. I believe I’m here to stand for freedom and to educate people around freedom. I honestly don’t anticipate that the book will be a big best seller. It’s more for me — fine tuning my ability to articulate the principles of freedom.

I’d really like to write a fantasy novel or some kind of fiction novel around the principles next. I anticipate that will start to take shape in my mind as I come to the end of my 7 year (2017). It should come out in 2018… or at least get written then. That’s my guess anyway. It’s percolating at a conceptual level — not at a story line level really. I’ve had some thoughts, but nothing that propels me forward.

Looking Back on Where I’ve Been

A 7 year is about taking things easy, working on your inner game. I’ve shifted dramatically in the last 3 years. I put my systems in place in 2014 (year 4), headed into a roller coaster adventure year traveling and exploring my freedom in 2015 (year 5), and settled into creating a new home life in 2016 (year 6).

I’m not the same person I was. Adventurous, roller coaster 2015 took me to some lost places, but somehow God reached down, snatched me up, and put me on a better path.

I feel different. I’m not certain the spiritual trail I followed pre-2015 works for me anymore. Maybe I had started to form wrong perceptions of the spiritual world. I don’t know. I just know I’m skeptical of a lot of the things I used to buy into. I’ve gone through a major reboot, and I feel like God wants me to adjust my spiritual perspectives.

Even though I don’t feel as “on my spiritual game” as I was prior to 2015, there are some good things that have come with the spiritual reboot of that year. I’m not as black and white about things. But the more I keep going to church, keep studying, and keep teaching at church, the more I feel the Spirit tuning my spirit to its frequency.

Tears come more readily than they used to. I rarely, if ever, cried — even when I needed to. I’m more compassionate, less judgmental, more forgiving, more willing to give people room to make mistakes and grow. More patient with people’s progress and my own.

Selecting a New Year’s Theme

Setting the numbers aside, even if I wasn’t in a “let it be” 7 year, I don’t feel like being pushed. I’m not feeling ambitious and don’t feel the need to force myself to be so.

I’ve been in observation mode with my own spirituality since 2015. I’ve observed how the Spirit has been shaping me, changing me. In a very subtle, gentle way the Spirit has been tweaking my desires so that I have less desire for sin, more desire for good. It’s been a very organic process. I have not had to “pull myself up by my bootstraps and make myself be good.”

This is why I believe the primary thing I need in 2017 is the Spirit.

Every small interaction with the Spirit adds a drop of oil to my lamp so I can shine brighter.

It cleanses and purifies me just a little bit more,

Aligns my desires and will with God’s will,

Clarifies my purpose and life mission,

Liberates me from internal and external bondage,

Teaches me who I am,

Helps me feel the love of God,

Enables me to love others more,

Brings me joy, peace, hope and faith, and

Propels me to act when the timing and ideas are right.

Degree by degree with every encounter, the Spirit transforms me. It’s not a “muster the willpower” to be more, better or greater. Seeking the Spirit daily facilitates a kind, gentle, and organic transformation which is in alignment with a 7 year.

Plan to Feel the Spirit More

As far as my business goes, I’m calendaring my year with my key offerings, and then I’m developing a daily action plan for marketing those offerings. Each day I’ll know what I’m supposed to be doing. By knowing what I need to do each day for my business, I can save lots of indecision and floundering time, get the job done, and then have the rest of the time for experiencing the Spirit and following what it guides me to do.

That’s what I’m working on this week — planning my year and creating my marketing calendar. I’ll be sharing how I do this in my next Marnie’s Marketing Mondays if you’d like to join me.

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with HOPE. But what if you’ve lost hope? You feel stuck, sad, maybe depressed. 6 years ago I had lost all hope in an important area of my life.

I noticed some verses in the Bible about Jesus being the resurrection and the life. I caught hold on the idea that Jesus could resurrect this dead thing. It gave me HOPE… and with hope, I set my feet on a path that led to something beautiful and wonderful.

It didn’t happen in the way I expected or with the people or conditions that began my journey, but that dead area of my life came alive.. more beautiful, blossoming and wonderful than it ever had been before.

Let Jesus resurrect what is dead in your life… and let go of how He does it or what it’s going to look like in the end. Just know that it will be glorious!

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

My friend Martina Muir says, “Who You Are Is Not What You’ve Done.” I’ve put a little twist on it… “Who you are is not what you do” either.

When you lose the ability to do what you’ve always done, it can create such a sense of loss that it strikes at the core of who you are as a person. You know what I mean — those things we do that define us:

the entrepreneur who is suffering a health challenge that affects her ability to work.

When one talent becomes our identity and that talent is damaged or lost, it can make you feel worthless and as if you don’t hold any value anymore.

In this segment I talk about dealing with this kind of loss and how to reframe the situation to discover who you really are. If you’d like to work this through with someone and process the loss, click here.

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

There are a lot of things we can lose in this world, but in the end they are just things. The truly frightening thing is to lose yourself. To wake up to the realization that you aren’t the sum total of your experiences and accomplishments. When everything is stripped away – the stuff, the dreams, the skills, and abilities, your health, and all you’re left with is you, you cry out to God, “What else will you take from me? I’m not even me anymore. Who am I? What am I?”

At last you remember: “I am a child of God, a divine sibling of every other person who has walked this planet. Quite simply I am an extension of God — His representative on earth, a walking embodiment of His love. Nothing else is real. Nothing else matters or lasts.”

Why must we wade through the excruciating to remember and absorb the simple?

The question I will be asking myself each day is “How can I more fully be the love today?”

Today, as I’ve pondered this question, I’ve realized who I need to show love for, first and foremost is me. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” How can we truly love anyone else if we don’t fully love ourselves?

I’m realizing I need to acknowledge myself, what I’ve been through, the grace with which I’ve navigated this voyage on choppy seas. While going through the divorce, my friend Rhonda Hess gave me an assignment to speak to my own heart like I’d speak to a friend as I went to sleep each night. Tell my heart what I admire about it, what’s good about it, truly embrace and love my own beautiful, giving and loving heart.

It was revolutionary for me at the time, and I’m pulling that exercise back out and using it again. It’s time… past time. It’s time to be the love with me.

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

A good friend expressed great disappointment that she had spent her life working and striving to do her best, yet she felt as if she had been struck with one disappointment after another. Nothing she did ever took her anywhere solid. Every dream withered on the vine. Why not just give up? Why not stop dreaming, stop believing? It had all been a waste. It hurts too much to hope. Dreaming is painful.

I felt sad for my friend. I’ve been where she’s been. I know those bottomed out points. They may last one to four days, but eventually I snap out of them and come back to who I am — someone who keeps on going, keeps on believing, and never quits. I’m sure my friend will come back around to that as well. That is who she is.

We think that life is about the destination. What if it’s not? What if it’s about the journey and who we become along the way? I’m reminded of a story by an unknown author that explains this well:

There once was a man who was asleep one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared to him.

The Lord told him He had a work for him to do, and showed him a large rock explaining that he was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, and for many days he toiled from sunup to sundown; his shoulder set squarely against the cold massive surface of the rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man showed signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture – placing thoughts in the man’s mind, such as “Why kill yourself over this?, you’re never going to move it!” or “Boy, you’ve been at it a long time and you haven’t even scratched the surface!” etc. giving the man the impression the task was impossible and the man was an unworthy servant because he wasn’t moving the massive stone.

These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man and he started to ease up in his efforts. “Why kill myself?” he thought. “I’ll just put in my time putting forth just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough.” And this he did or at least planned on doing until, one day, he decided to take his troubles to the Lord.

“Lord,” he said, “I have labored hard and long in Your service, putting forth all my strength to do that which You have asked of me. Yet after all this time, I have not even budged that rock even half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?”

To this the Lord responded compassionately, “My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you to push against the rock with all your strength and that you have done. But never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. At least not by yourself. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me, your strength spent, thinking that you have failed, ready to quit. But is this really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled; your back sinewed and brown. Your hands are calloused from constant pressure and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your ability now far surpasses that which you used to have. Yet still, you haven’t succeeded in moving the rock; and you come to Me now with a heavy heart and your strength spent. I, my friend will move the rock. Your calling was to be obedient and push, and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom, and this you have done.”

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

Your dreams whisper to you … heed their call and co-create them with God. This is an extemporaneous piano creation I recorded tonight and set to some of my photography. I decided to also add some affirmations to support you in your dreams. I hope you enjoy it!

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

I once knew a woman who was very driven to succeed in her network marketing business. She decided to devote the next three years of her life to her success. She worked all hours of the day and night and insisted her team do the same. If her team didn’t attend sales meetings until 3am, she’d refuse to support them anymore. She decided she would put everything but her business pursuits on hold for three years. Then she’d retire. She was goal driven and focused, and she knew she would succeed.

Her husband and her children took a backseat to her goal of success. She was excessively hard on her team and even began cutting corners and violating ethics to ensure she was a top performer (or appeared to be). By the end of the three years, she was divorced, had lost custody of her children, and lost her business due to unethical dealings. In fact, her name was completely blotted out of the company with which she had worked.

In my mind, she became the poster child for what it means to create one’s life without checking in with God. She became the supreme example of trying to create abundance on the competitive plain. She constantly “pushed the rope,” and that rope transformed into a noose.

I believe as children of THE CREATOR, made in His image, we are born creators. We can create our lives on our own, pursuing selfish, self-gratifying and vain ambition. We can do this by stepping on others, forcing our will onto others, or by manipulating and controlling (aka force).

Or we can amble through life without any goals or objectives. As the Cheshire Cat told Alice, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road’ll take you there.” And “there” isn’t always the best location.

Most people choose something between these two extremes.

I am an advocate of having goals and dreams, but I believe for best results, we co-create them with God. We step out of the competitive plain onto the creative plain. We check in with God to make sure the aspirations we set for ourselves are in alignment with our highest purpose and soul fulfillment.

Then we

– set clear intentions,
– ask for assistance,
– take inspired action,
– operate from gratitude, and
– allow the co-creation process to take place.

What do I mean by co-creation? I believe nature is friendly to your plans when you operate from your highest purpose. Angels, Spirit and the intelligent matter of the universe line up on your team to help you achieve your objectives. The right people will be introduced to you at the perfect time. The optimal resources will be made available to you. The appropriate doors will open for you.

But you must be willing to set a clear intention, ask, listen for a confirmation that you’re on path, and take inspired action. Action is critical. As Wallace Wattles wrote in 1910: “By faith the thing you want is brought to you and by action you receive it.” Do all you know to do. Reach toward God’s reaching, but never force, manipulate or control.

If you are honest with yourself, if you have integrity, what you want is what God wants for you. The powers of heaven are on your side.

But remember the powers of heaven can only be activated upon the principles of righteousness. When we undertake to cover our mistakes, to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon other people or upon the elements of the universe, in any degree of unrighteousness, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved. And when it is withdrawn, we are left to ourselves – to push that rope.

Stop back by for my next entry… I’ll be talking about what to do when things don’t fall into place, when doors seem to slam in your face when you feel certain God told you to travel the path you’re traveling.

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

When you get super specific about what you want, life will bring it to you. When it arrives, you may decide it isn’t really what you want/need after all. That’s okay, be open to tweaking. Use this opportunity to learn about yourself and better identifying what you truly want at a base-needs level.

In my experience what we’re looking for is more the meeting of an emotional need. It’s an experience, rather than a checklist of items or characteristics. Identifying core needs and desired feelings makes it easier to recognize a good thing when it arrives. Many times where God is ultimately leading you looks nothing like your checklist. His answer may arrive in a way you never expected, and it might even be something you would have initially rejected had you only gone by your list and not taken time to discover your true desires and needs.

As my friend Steve Sutton﻿ (the trucker) says, “how do you know if you’re on the right road until you take the wrong road?” Sometimes the wrong road is the one that looks good on paper. The right road could be the one that doesn’t meet all the tiny details but meets your core emotional needs and makes you truly happy and fulfilled.

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

Your weight affects every interaction you have with yourself and others. In your business it determines what photos you put on Facebook, whether you feel comfortable making videos or not, being on stage, leading a retreat, or even putting your pictures on your website. Personally it impacts your dreams, traveling, sex, relationships, and basically showing up for life!

The only way to eliminate the excess weight and maintain a healthy, vibrant body is to get down to the root of WHY you’re hanging onto the extra pounds. If I were to give the root issue a name, I’d say it boils down to one main thing for most people. Find out what that is in this FREE Audio, “Create Your Amazing Body – Look and Feel Fantastic.”

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

So many of us never go for our dreams because we can’t see HOW we’re going to get past the obstacles that loom before us. Or we never set out because we don’t know every step it will take to arrive at our destination.

Don’t let the important desires for your heart be held hostage because you don’t know how they can happen! In this video I talk about how to create your own amazing life by letting go of how it will happen…

Marnie Pehrson is a best-selling author and marketing and social media consultant specializing in digital content creation and Facebook Ad Management. Get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.

Testimonials

"Marnie’s creative shift work is amazing! I worked with her as I was making a big transition in my business to step into a bolder passionate message. She helped me to move all those pebbles that were preventing me from shining brightly and confidently in my new message. It’s those subtle, unconscious things that get in your way. Marnie is truly masterful at helping you identify what your pebbles and rocks are. She’s so committed to helping you remove those blocks so you can show up as your most powerful self!"

"Marnie shares her intelligence and talents with wit, she shares them with patience. She's articulate, she's organized in her thoughts. She doesn't lose us. We follow along and we get it. Lastly, we know we can do it. She infused us with the confidence to know we can."